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Invalid Key Length

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    #1

    Invalid Key Length

    I encounter the error message "Invalid Key Length" when trying to mark/unmark duplicate records.

    I am new to Alpha Five, and am in the process of importing 180,000 records.

    I have searched the forum for key length posts, but haven't found the information I am searching for.

    Any help would be greatly appreciated!
    Tags: None
    #2
    Originally posted by KimberlyPatt
    I encounter the error message "Invalid Key Length" when trying to mark/unmark duplicate records.

    I am new to Alpha Five, and am in the process of importing 180,000 records.

    I have searched the forum for key length posts, but haven't found the information I am searching for.

    Any help would be greatly appreciated!
    Check the web help

    Index
    Maximum key length

    Knowing the key length of an index or query key can be important because Alpha Five only supports key lengths of 100 characters of less. If you use a key length of more than 100 characters, your data may not appear to sort correctly because Alpha Five ignores key values past the first 100 characters.
    How is your import defined?
    There can be only one.

    Comment

      #3
      I'm not sure what you mean by "defined".

      I have imported my data via an Excel spreadsheet, I now have the table created, and want to find the duplicate records in that specific table.

      Comment

        #4
        Originally posted by KimberlyPatt
        I'm not sure what you mean by "defined".

        I have imported my data via an Excel spreadsheet, I now have the table created, and want to find the duplicate records in that specific table.
        Sorry, to me "am in the process of importing 180,000 records" didn't mean that the import had been done.

        I think your error indicates that the expression you are using to define a duplication is exceeding the limit mentioned earlier.

        Suppose you have columns

        f_name
        m_init
        l_name
        suffix

        that come in from the excel table and wind up as corresponding Alpha fields. Alpha will make guesses, based on the excel file formatting, as to the appropriate structure to create. If one of the excel columns is formatted as column width of 60 but the largest entry in the column is 20 characters, the field will be created width of 60.

        Suppose the resulting structure for the fields listed above winds up as

        f_name character 30 wide no decimals
        m_init character 5 wide no decimals
        l_name character 60 wide no decimals
        suffix character 10 wide no decimals

        Creating a "Duplicate key expression" for the delete duplicates operation will use the combined defined width of the fields involved unless you tell it otherwise. In the example I suggest the "key length" based on f_name+m_init+l_name+suffix would be 105. Using some string manipulation functions the "Duplicate key expression" might become trim(f_name)+trim(m_init)+trim(l_name)+trim(suffix) which would eliminate the trailing blank spaces and should result in a shorter key length.
        There can be only one.

        Comment

          #5
          Sorry Stan.

          My fault for not providing enough clarity. My "I'm in the process" referred to the fact that importing 160,000+ records has necessitated in breaking up the import into smaller sections. I am importing the records into separate tables (16,000 records at a time), and after deleting the duplicates, will combine them into one table. Perhaps I am going about this the hard way, but I was unable to import more than 16,000 records at a time, despite the literature that states that A5 v7 can handle larger amounts of records. By the way, I also have csv text file of our complete database, but I wasn't successful at importing that either.

          That being said.....

          Now that I have imported a few tables, I wanted to delete the duplicates before combining the tables into one, as I thought it might be easier that way. (Unfortunately, the software that we were using previously, did not provide a way for me to do this before exporting to an Excel spreadsheet, and A5's delete operation seemed to make this much easier.

          I am using only an Email_1 field as a parameter for finding duplicates. It is the only field that always contains data throughout the entire database. I first tried to mark duplicates when the Email_1 field was a character field with a 40 width, Because I was unsuccessful, I changed the field to a memo field, but that didn't work either. Any words of wisdom?

          And, by the way, if you have a suggestion on importing my whole database from either an Excel file or a ASCII text file, I'd more than welcome any suggestions.

          Thank you so much for your time (and patience!)

          Comment

            #6
            Originally posted by KimberlyPatt
            if you have a suggestion on importing my whole database from either an Excel file ...
            If you have an Excel file you can save it, in Excel, as a DBF 4 (dBASE IV) (*.dbf). Once you have done that Alpha can open that file. Which doesn't do anything for the delete duplicates issue.

            Can you zip and attach a sample table that you have already created or email it to me if you don't want to expose it to everyone? I'd be glad to take a look.
            There can be only one.

            Comment

              #7
              And, by the way, if you have a suggestion on importing my whole database from either

              Kimberly:

              in excel export the file as MSDOS CSV file. Then import the file into a new dbf the system will create it. First row of the file contains header will take the field names that were passed by Excel and use them to create Field names in the DBF.

              I hope this helps.

              bob adler

              Comment

                #8
                Thanks for the info Bob.

                I saved my Excel file in MSDOS CSV, and then imported it as a text file. It ran the analysis, and export, but the message I continue to receive at the end, is "2 files imported". What am I doing wrong?

                Frustrated in Houston, and sooooo grateful for your help!

                Comment

                  #9
                  import

                  kimberly:

                  The attached file imports a CSV file. I do not see the error messages that you receive.

                  unzip the file into a new directory and test it.

                  I hope this helps.

                  bob adler

                  Comment

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